Air pump or compressor.



G. O. SOBINSKI.

AIR PUMP 0R COMPRESSOR- APPLIOATION mum MAY 1s, 19os.

WITNESSES:

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0. 0. SOBINSKI.

AIR PUMP 0R COMPRESSOR.

APPLICATION I'ILBD MAY16, 1908.

Patented Apr. 27, 1909.

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WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY.

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CHARLES O. SOBINSKI, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

AIR PUMP OR COMPRESSOR.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES O. SoniN-sm, citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Air Pumps or Compressors, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being bad to the acconnpanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention has relation to improvements in driving-gear and valve-gear for pumps, compressors and the like; and it consists in the novel construction and arrange ment of parts more fully set forth in the specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a pump. with parts broken away showingthe application of my invention; Fig. 2 is a top plan with a portion of the top, and guide-plate removed; Fig. 3 is a top plan of the driving-gear only; Fig. 4; is an enlarged vertical longitudinal section of the machine on the line et-i of Fig. 9., only one cylinder being shown; Fig. is a. ver tical transverse section on the line 5 5 of Fig. 4;; Fig. 6 is a. vertical transverse section on the line (36 of Fig. 4:; Fig. '7 is an enlarged vertical middle section of the intake valve; and Figs. 8 and 9 are diagrammatic views of the driving gear showing respectively the cross-heads at the ends of one of their respective strokes, and the position of the rack-plates shifted to proper position to allow the cross-heads to begin their next strokes in opposite direction.

The present invention is an improvement on the pump or compressor shown and described in United -States Letters Patent 8293411, issued to me under date of August 28, 1906, and has for its object the introduction of specific structural details whereby certain defects inherent in the patented construction may be overcome. Among the improvements thus introduced may be mentioned (1) suitable plates or members which assist in shifting vertically the toothedmembers or rack-plates coupled to the crossheads, preparatory to imparting the necessary reciprocation to said cross-heads and to the pistons actuated thereby; 2) specially constructed guide-ways to insure for the shifting-plates a reciprocation with a minimum amount of binding and friction: (3) special provision for permitting the rackplates to travel independently of one another and Without frictional engagement of Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 16, 1908. Serial No. 433,237.

Patented April 27, 1909.

one with the other; 1) specially constructed inlet or induction valves for admitting air into the cylinder; (5) specially constructed ports for conducting the air into and out of the cylinder; and finally special features the advantages of which will be better apparent from a detailed description of the invention wiiich' is as follows Referring to the drawings, 1 represents the pump-cylinder, in which operate the pistons 2, 3, the hollow piston-rod 1- of the former loosely receiving the piston-rod 5 of the latter, the piston-rods both extending in the same direction toward the transverselydisposed operating or drive-shaft 6, itself driven from any suitable source of power as in my patent above referred to. Two sets of cylinders and pistons are herein shown, the one set being a duplicate of the other, so that a description of one-half of the machine will answer for the corresponding parts of the opposite half. Both pistons are reciprocated by the rotation of the shaft (3, the latter being mounted in suitable bearings 7 above the frame or base 8 of the machine.

Disposed at each end of the machineframe or base '8, is an intake-chamber 9, the chambers being connected by the openended pipe 10 whereby they are brought into connnunication one with the other. Each chamber 9 terminates in an intake-pipe or air-supply pipe 11.

Operating in suitable guide ways in the machine frame and within the inclosing walls Q1) Q0, between the cylinder-heads of the double machine, is an outer cross-head composed of the side members or plates 12, 1-3, and end members 14:, 14, the latter being secured to the hollow piston-rods 4: as in my patent aforesaid. WVithin the outer crosshead is disposed the inner crosshead 15 adapted to reciprocate along a tongue 6 of the member 12 of said outer crosshead which tongue serves to properly guide said inner cross-head in, and to effectively con fine it to, its proper rectilinear movements. The inner cross-head is coupled to the inner piston-rods 5 which freely pass through the end plates or members 14:, 14 of the outer cross-head and into the cylinders 1, 1., where they are coupled to the pistons 3, as well understood in the art.

In the particulars thus far recited, the present construction does not materially differ from that of my patent above referred to. The present improvement is directed to vertical movement in the pocket of the cross-head as more fully hereinafter referred to. Located within the frame constituting the outer cross-head, and in contigu'ous relation to the interiorly -toothe'd block B is a similar interiorly-toothed block B, having the elongated opening 0 with teeth h, the outer face of said block bearing against the adjacent side member of the cross-head. This block B likewise is susceptible of a limited vertical movement within the confines of the pocket cl which receives it, the latter (pocket CZ) being formed by the wings or abutments 1", 1', projecti'n'g inwardly from the adjacent side member 13 of the outer cross-head. The face of the inner cross-head 15 contiguous to the member 12 of the outer cross-head has a depressed portion 6 leaving terminal raised portions or ridges in which are formed suitable grooves or ways for the reception of the horizontal ends of the freelyreciprocating shifting member or shifter 16, the latter being provided at proper points with the parallel inclined slots 8 s, which are permanently engaged by v the roller-ends of the pins or studs 17, 17, projecting from the adjacent block B In like manner, slidingly supported in suitable ways 'or grooves in the wings 1" r of the member 13 is a shifter 16 likewise provided with inclined slots 8' 5" permanently engaged by the roller-ends of the pins 17 17,

secured to the block B. The shifters 16, 16 r are fiat plates somewhat bowed as shown, the shifter 16 being concave and the shifter 16 convex when viewed in side elevation. Any other suitable form however would answer the purpose.

Secured to the top of the side vertical incl'osing walls to w of the engine frame, is a plate 18 provided with a pair of longitudinally disposed parallel slots 19, 1?) respectively, the former being immediately over the block B, and the latter over the.

block B. The slots are enlarged at the ends and at intermediate points into transverse passages or openings 20, 20 respectively as; shown. At the ends of the block B project upwardly the stems 21 which are free to.

pass through the slots 19, each stem terminating in an enlarged head 22 capable of freely passing through the enlarged openings 20, but incapable'of passing through the slots 19. In like manner the ends of the block B terminate in upwardly extending stems 21" passing freely through the slot '19 and terminating in heads 22 adapted to freely pass through the enlarged openings 20. So that when either of the reciprocating blocks, B, B, is in its lowest position the heads 22 thereof bear against the under surface of the guideplate 18; and when the block is in its highest position, the heads thereof travel along the upper surface of the guide plate, the stems 21, 21 traveling in the slots 19, 19' as presently to be more fully apparent.

As in my patent aforesaid, the drive-shaft 6 passes transversely through the oblong and elongated openings 0, O, of the rack-plates or blocks B, B, and through similar elongated openings necessarily formed in the cross-heads, the lengths of the latter openings being of course sufiicient to allow for the necessary stroke imparted to the crossheads and their pistons. shaft 6 is an elongated pinion 23, which is adapted to mesh simultaneously with the upper longitudinal toothed edge of the block B and with the lower toothed edge of Secured to the the block B (Figs. 5, 8) or, wit-h the lower toothed edge of the block B and the upper toothed edge of the block B (Fig; 9) so that, assuming that the shaft with its pinion revolves constantly in one direction, the direction of reciprocation which the pinion 23 imparts to the blocks or rack-plates B, B will depend on which side of the toothed portion of either block is in engagement with the pinion. Thus, assuming the pinion 23 to be rotating as indicated by the arrow Fig. 1, the plate B will have been reciprocated its full stroke to the right, and plate B to the left. Further rotation of the pinion in the same direction will effect engagement with the lower toothed edge of the plate B, and the upper toothed edge of the plate B (as presently to be seen) and will drive the plates simultaneously in the opposite direction. Of course the plates B,

B are capable only of a limited vertical movement in their respective cross-heads, so that the latter as in my patent referred to, must necessarily respond to the longitudinal reciprocations of the rack-plates as they are reciprocate-d by the pinion 23.

The manner of bringing the driving pinion 23 into alternate engagement with the opposite sides of the toothed openings of the respective rack-plates B, B so as to bring about the simultaneous reciprocations of the plates in opposite directions, though in some measure similar to that of my patent aforesaid, is attended with considerably less friction by reason of the features of the shifting members 16, 16, the guide plate 1S, and the guide-stems and heads carried by the blocks or plates B, B and cooperating with said guide-plate.

The operation may be described as follows, special reference being had to Figs. 8 and Referring to Fig. 8, and assuming the rotation of the drive-shaft (3 and its pinion 23 to be in the direct-ion of the arrow in said figure, and the blocks B, B respectively in their lowest and highest positions and at the ends of their respective strokes in one direction (which would be a stroke to the right for block B, and to the left for block B), it will be seen that with a con tinued rotation of the pinion 23, its teeth will engage the terminal teeth of the oblong openings of the blocks, such engagement raising the adjacent end of block B, and depressing the adjacent (but opposite) end of the block B, the same as in my patent already referred to. Confining our attention for the present to the block B, and assisted by a reference to Fig. 9, which shows a partially advanced rotation of the pinion suflicient to have raised or picked up the adjacent end of the block B, it is apparent that in raising the block, the roller-pin 1'? at that end will traverse the inclined slot 8, and in such traverse (the pin being capable only of a vertical movement) the pin will, by engaging the upper wall of such inclined slot, draw the shifter 16 to the left, that being the direction of the stroke to be next imparted to the block (the shifter being susceptible only of longitudinal or horizontal movement). In this horizontal movement, the pin 17 at the opposite end of the block will traverse the inclined slot at the opposite end of the shifter; but as the shifter in its horizontal movement compels the pin 17 at that end to ride on the lower inclined wall of the slot, and itself under the circumstances constitutes the driving member, it follows that it will cause the pin 17 at that end to traverse the vertical component or perpendicular of the triangle of which the inclined wall of the slot may be considered the hypotenuse, so that while one end of the block B is raised by the pinion, the opposite end is raised by the lower wall of the inclined slot 8 at the opposite end of the shifter, which latter has had a longitudinal travel or movement imparted to it by the pin 17 at the end adj accnt to the pinion. The points of application of the power which shifts the block B vertically are thus distributed on opposite sides of its center, and hence the forces necessary to effect the shifting are equalized so as to remove any binding on the block, permitting the latter to move always parallel to itself. The block B on the other hand is correspondingly depressed at the same time. The blocks are then free to reciprocate in the opposite direction, and when they have reached the limit of such next stroke, the reverse of the operations takes place, that is to say, the block B is depressed and the block B is raised, this action repeating itself as long as the shaft 6 rotates. Of course in the depression of a block (B, B)

the roller-pins 17 (17) engage the slots 8 8 along the walls ust the reverse of what they would in raising the block.

The foregoing operation will be clearly apparent from Figs. 8 and 9. In the latter figure the pin 17 at the end of the block B which has been raised by the pinion 23 has traversed the slot 8 of the shifter 16 and moved it to the left, the opposite end of the shifter in turn raising the opposite end of the block conjointly with the raising of the end elevated by the pinion; and. the pin 17- of the block B on the end farthest away from the pinion has assisted in the depres sion of block B at that end conjointly with the depression of the opposite end of the same block by the pinion 23, in which latter depression, the pin 17 at the end adjacent to the pinion, in traversii'ig the slot 8 imparted to the shifter 16 the necessary longitudinal movement to permit its opposite end to act in the manner indicated.

In the reciprocations of the block B, while the same is in its depressed position, the heads 22 of the terminal stems 21 thereof bear against the under surface of the guideplate 18, until it reaches the end of its stroke, whereupon it is raised, the heads 22 passing through the o ienings 20 to a plane just above the upper surface of the plate. On the return stroke of the block the heads 22 travel along the top of the plate, the stems 21 freely traversing the slot 19 of the plate. lVhen the end of the second stroke is reached, the block is depressed, whereupon the heads 22 drop through the particular openings 20 that happen to be opposite, the block being new in position to make a third stroke, the heads 22 now again passing along the under surface of the plate 18. Thus the block is virtually supported when in its raised position, by the heads 22 spanning the slot 19 and resting on top of the plate 18. In its lowest or depressed posit-ion of course it rests upon the pinion 23. The block B operates in precisely the same way with its stems 21 and heads 22 and guide-slot 19, and requires no further explanation. The construction just described permits the blocks B, 5 to operate with minimum binding and friction, and thus the cross-heads are reciprorated with a minimum loss of power, and with the least amount of friction. By mounting the shifter 16 in the raised portions f, f, the latter comes flush with the outer faces of such raised portions, the rear surface of the shifter bearing against the face of the depression For a similar purpose the inner face of the block B is provided with a depression (1 whereby the shifter '16 is permitted to be mounted in the ribs 9', 1", of the outer cross-head, the base of the depression a forming a bearing for the adjacent face of the shifter 16, the ends l of the latter being flush with the faces of the &

ribs 1, r. The cover for the engine-gear is 7 represented by w.

As in my patent aforesaid, the present improvement is provided with inlet and outlet valves V, V, respectively, the latter being on the order shown and described in my U. S. Patent Number 885,193 issued under date of April 21., 1908, so that no description thereof is here necessary. The inlet valves are composed of an outer or main hollow induction valve V having a bottom opening normally closed by a secondary or check-valve o of spherical form, the walls of the outer Valve being provided with ports 7) closed when the main valve is seated (Fig. 7). The chamber of the valve V is closed at the top by a screw plug m, the casing of the valve being conical to afford a seat for the conical or flaring head of the said valve V (Figs. 4C, 6, 7). Obviously, when the pistons 2 and 3 separate, the terminal valves V, V become seated, the middle one unseating, and at the same time the terminal outlet or discharge valves V, V are unseated, the-middle valve V seating. hen the pistons approach each other, the terminal inlet valves V, V, become unseated, and the center one seated, While the terminal discharge valves V V are seated, and the center valve V unseated, all as described in my prior patents. With the unseating of the valve V, the check valve 2 is raised, allowing the inrushing air to pass through the ports 7) into the valve-casing through the distributing inlet ports p 1) into the cylinder 1. The check valve v performs the function of instantly seating itself in advance of the main valve so that any delay in the latter may not detract from the eliiciency of the engine. The instantaneous action of the spherical or supplemental check-valve o is-on the order of the similar check valve in the discharge valve V and fully covered in my U. S. patent under date of April 21, 1908 referred to. It will be seen (Fig. 7) that the ports 29 leading from the chamber of the primary valve V are imme diately at the lower ed e of the conical seat of the casing in which the valve is housed, so that the instant the valve V (and its secondary check valve Q1) is unseated, the air is free to rush through the ports into the cylinder between, or on the outside of the pistons 2, 3, depending on the direction of the stroke which they are to take. The air from the cylinder is discharged through the ports 79 as in my previous patents, and after passing through the discharge valves V enters the compressed-air chamber C whence it flows through the branches E, E, into the common delivery pipe E to any point of consumption.

Having described my invent-ion what I claim is 1. In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross -l1eads simultaneously reciprocating in opposite directions, depressions formed on adjacent faces thereof, interiorly-toothed plates confined in said depressions and susceptible only of a movement therein at right angles to the axis of reciprocation of the cross-heads, a drive-shaft, a pinion on the shaft engaging the toothed walls of the openings of the plates, devices for simultaneously engaging the plates at points disposed on opposite sides of the centers thereof during the periods of the movements aforesaid, whereby the plates are raised and depressed always in parallel lines, and means on the plates cooperating with a stationary portion of the pump for retaining the plates in their shifted positions until the ends of their respective strokes are reached, substantially as set forth.

2. In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross-heads simultaneously reciprocating in opposite directions, plates having interiorly-toothed oblong openings, mounted on the cross-heads and susceptible of movement thereon only at right angles to the direction of reciprocation of said crossheads, a shaft passing transversely through the openings of the plates, a pinion on the shaft, the opposite longitudinal toothed walls of the openings of the respective plates alternately engaging the teeth of the pinion from opposite sides whereby said plates have imparted thereto a simultaneous reciprocation in opposite directions and whereby by engagement with the terminal teeth of said openings the same are shifted at one end by i the )inion for effectin the alternate enga e- D V m, D

ment aforesaid at the ends of their respective strokes, means independent of the pinion for simultaneously shifting the opposite ends of the plates whereby the plates will move parallel to themselves, and means on the plates cooperating with a stationary por tion of the pump for retaining the plates in their shifted positions until the ends of their respective strokes are reached, substan tially as set forth.

3. In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross-heads simultaneously reciprocating in opposite directions, plates having interiorly-too-thed oblong openings, mounted on the cross-heads and susceptible of movement thereon only at right angles to the direction of reciprocation of said crossheads, a shaft passing transversely through the plate-openings, a pinion 011 the shaft, the opposite longitudinal walls of the openings of the respective plates alternately engaging the teeth of the pinion from opposite sides, a shifter mounted on each cross-head and having a limited independent movement thereon parallel to the axis of reciprocation thereof, the shifter being provided with in clined slots at opposite ends, and pins projecting from the toothed plates and engaging the slots, whereby upon a depression or elevation of one end of any plate by the pinion engaging the terminal tooth of the oblong opening thereof, a sliding movement is imparted .to the shifter by the traverse of the pin in the slot at one end of the shifter, and whereby the movement of the shifter thus resulting causes the pin at the opposite end of the toothed-plate to traverse the inclined slot at the corresponding end of the shifter, both ends of the plate being thus depressed or elevated at the same time, and the plate thus moved parallel to itself without binding, substantially as set forth.

a. In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross-heads reciprocating in opposite directions, plates having interiorlytoothed oblong openings, mounted on the cross-heads and susceptible of movement thereon only at right angles to the direction of reciprocation of said cross-heads, a shaft passing transversely through the plate-openings, a pinion on the shaft, a shifter mounted on each cross-head and having a limited independent movement thereon parallel to the axis of reciprocation thereof, means interposed between each toothed late and its corresponding shifter for effecting a bodily transverse movement of the plate in lines parallel to itself at the conclusion of a given stroke of the cross-heads, a stationary guideplate having slots disposed parallel to the reeiprocations of the cross-heads, and having enlarged openings or formations leading laterally from the slots, stems on the toothed-plates for entering the slots for one position of the plates, and heads on the stems adapted to pass through the laterally enlarged openings and bear against the guide-plate on opposite sides of the slot for properly guiding the toothed-plate in either of its extreme transverse positions, substantially as set forth.

In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross-heads simultaneously reciprocating in opposite directions, interiorlytoothed plates mounted thereon and capable of an ii'idependent transverse movement thereon in addition to the bodily reciprocating movement therewith, a driving pinion engaging the toothed walls of the plates as specified, and shifters for permitting an elevation and depression of the plates in parallel lines whereby all binding of the plates is eliminated, substantially as set forth.

(5. In a pump, the combination of a pair of juxtaposed cross-heads simultaneously reciprocating in opposite directions, interiorlytoothed plates mounted thereon and reciprocating therewith and capable only of a movement therein at right angles to the axis of reciprocation of the cross-heads, stems extending from the plates, heads at the ends of the stems, and a guide-plate having parallel disposed slots with lateral enlargements or openings for accommodating the stems and heads aforesaid, whereby the toothed-plates are guided in their reciprocations for either of their extreme positions to which they may be shifted in such rightangled movements, and a pinion alternately engaged by the teeth of the plates from opposite sides, for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES O. SOBINSKI.

lVitnesses EMIL STAREK, Jos. A. MICHEL. 

